Columns

The Senate continued work and recognized an historic event. Many lawmakers joined thousands of Kentuckians gathered along Capitol Avenue to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the March on Frankfort led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. It was a cold and blustery March 5, 1964, when Dr. King, along with 10,000 others, marched up to the front door of our capital in support of the Kentucky Civil Rights Act.

As you read this I have less than four weeks left of my newspaper career. So read on as I take a walk down memory lane.
I came to Grant County, from Harrison County, in August of 1988. But, I’m old now so if I didn’t it doesn’t really matter as all the dates are in the past and it isn’t going to stop or change anything.
Here’s a brief look at my first six months in Grant County.

The energy was lively as hundreds of school groups, local officials, advocacy groups and interested citizens visited the Capital. I appreciated so many coming to witness legislation in action.

I was honored to welcome many students from my district as well as groups like the Governor’s Scholars and the Future Politicians of America. We need interested and involved students who are service-oriented and focused on leading the in legislative and governmental sectors.

We passed the one-third mark of the 2014 Regular Session this past week, and one of the highlights was the unveiling of the Governor’s proposal for comprehensive tax reform in Kentucky.

The Commonwealth has not tackled tax reform since 2005, when Governor Ernie Fletcher proposed updating some of Kentucky’s tax code, which was referred to as tax modernization. While that legislation had some impact, full tax modernization has not been passed by the General Assembly for decades.